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Hawkins learned that he had a stress frac- ture in his foot. He ended up sitting out the entire season. "It was de+nitely tough missing my senior year with my teammates," Hawkins said. "I worked really hard with those guys for four years. But I made the best of the situation and used it as a learning experience. I was still a captain this year, so I had to +nd ways to lead without having a way to back it up on the +eld. "Fortunately, my coach put me in a good position to still have an impact on the team. I led the prayer session before kick- o,, so that allowed me to speak with the team before the game. I put my heart into that." Hawkins' personality also grabbed the attention of some of the Penn State sta,'s top remaining recruits. Naturally, he gravitated toward the players who were being pursued to join defensive line coach Sean Spencer's Wild Dogs. "With me being a defensive lineman, I mainly built relationships with the other D-linemen who were being recruited," Hawkins said. "Guys like Jayson Oweh, Micah Parsons and P.J. Mustipher. Even before I committed, when I kind of al- ready knew I was going to Penn State, I would reach out to P.J. before he was about to commit. "At the time, he was still torn between Penn State and Maryland. I did what I could to reach out to those guys period- ically. I reached out to Jayson about once a week, but I talked to Micah all the time." Of course, all three ended up signing with the Nittany Lions this past Decem- ber. Hawkins would never take credit for the sta,'s accomplishments on the re- cruiting trail, but he went about his work just as James Franklin does. "Just like my teammates at Moeller, I al- ways wanted to really get to know the guys who were going to be my future teammates," Hawkins said. "I remember when recruits from other teams would try to talk to me. So many of them would just talk about recruiting or football. That's not the way to go about it. The main thing I would do is just relate to guys and get to know them. That's what it's all about with me. It's about building those relation- ships before you get to the +eld. That's what really builds football teams. Obvi- ously, talent is important, but when you have a really close group of guys, that's what takes teams to the next level. That's what I try to do. I try to bring guys to- gether. "Honestly, that's why I believe Coach Franklin has had so much success in re- cruiting and then on the +eld. He relates to guys and he +nds guys who +t this mold that he's looking for. Our class is the perfect example. A lot of us are al- ready really good friends. That's just going to make us better when our time comes." ■ HUB-Robeson Center • On-Campus SouthwestChili chicken sandwich NEW! ©2018 McAlister's Franchisor SPV LLC

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